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What Do You Make of the Bipartisan Response to Hurricane Sandy?

Now that attention has shifted towards recovery efforts for Hurricane Sandy, the news has followed President Obama on his tour of areas devastated by the storm. Joining him in New Jersey is the state's GOP Governor, Chris Christie, who was also the keynote speaker from the Republican National Convention, and a major Mitt Romney surrogate. It's an example of high-ranking politicians reaching across the aisle, something for which we've been begging--so why's it stirring up controversy?

The New Jersey governor, who just a few weeks ago was heavily anti-Obama, has publicly embraced the support of the President's aid after Sandy battered the New Jersey coast. Now, he's been very public about praising Obama assistance, and it's raising eyebrows from both parties, parituclarly from Christie's GOP allies. First, check out this clip from Governor Christie's appearance on FOX News's A.M. show Fox & Friends that generated some shocking quotes:

When asked whether Mitt Romney was planning on visiting New Jersey to tour the damage with him, he replied,

"I have no idea, nor am I the least bit concerned or interested. I have a job to do here in New Jersey that is much bigger than presidential politics. And I could care less about any of that stuff. I have a job to do. I’ve got 2.4 million people out of power. I’ve got devastation on the shore. I’ve got floods in the Northern parts of my state. If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics, then you don’t know me.”

He went on to explain how he was working with President Obama, what the two have done to work together. "I have to give president great credit. He has been on the phone with three times in the last 24 hours," Christie said to FOX. "He has been attentive and anything I have asked for, he has gotten to me. So I thank the president publicly for that, he has done, as far as I am concerned, a great job for Jersey.”

Christie has also praised Obama during other appearances, including on the TODAY show, Morning Joe, and on CNN, according to the New Yorker.

Some conservative outlets, including FOX's own Fox Nation blog, called Christie's comments an example of the Romney surrogate "keeping his priorities straight", and didn't comment on its political implications. But others weren't so kind, including members of his own party. Rush Limbaugh said of Christie: “He’s fat and a fool. Don’t listen to Governor Christie. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” And the New York Times's Maureen Dowd, says Christie's praise of President Obama is both “devastating for Mitt Romney", and an inauthentic show of bipartisanship:

[White House officials] speculate that Christie, who always puts Christie first, has decided that it’s better for his presidential ambitions to be a maverick blue-state governor with a Democratic chief executive exiting in 2016 than to have President Romney and Tea-Party Republicans in Congress pulling him over to the extreme right for the next eight years. He also knows he’ll need a boatload of federal cash to make his state whole again.

Governor Christie has made his stance on the matter clear:

When it comes to getting things done, I don't care what party someone is in. The responsibility I have is much bigger than politics.

What do you think about this bipartisan cooperation? Do you think it's a great example of America putting aside their differences in a time of crisis, or do you find it suspicious this close to the election?